Old Dogs
by araviis
Summary: Jon hasn't seen Carter for fifteen years, so why would she turn up on his doorstep now?
1. Chapter 1

Cross-posted from AO3, because I forgot to do it at the time...

Yeah, I don't know what this is, but I think it happened not long ago. I think the Stargate program's public now and I think Sam was put in charge of it. I never personally shipped her and Jack, but I think they're married and happy, and that something happened recently that's not so happy - you'll see what. And I think that something else unhappy is on its way, too.

* * *

The young eyes of an old man watched as a classic, pristine car pulled up in front of his home, and widened as he recognised the classic, pristine woman who stepped out of it.

Fifteen years had treated her well. Of course, he'd already known what she would look like now. He'd followed her career, watched as the first President he'd respected in decades had pinned a shining star to each of her shoulders on national television. But he hadn't seen her in the flesh, not since -

The bell rang and he almost jumped. The dog leapt up at him, barking loudly.

"Homer, get down," he scolded, "it's okay. She's a… friend."

But Homer didn't get down, so he shooed him into the backyard and shut him out before he sucked it up and answered the door.

"Hi, Jack," she said, smiling warmly, and he found himself smiling back despite his better instincts.

"My name's Jon," he told her. "Come on in, Carter."

He had Guinness on hand to give her and she drank it quickly. Not to say she was improper or inappropriate, she could never be that - but quicker than the Major Carter of old would have done.

"So," he said, leaning forward on the couch to better observe her, and setting his water aside, "it's been a while."

"Yes," she said. "I haven't seen you since you were…"

"Grown?"

He said it to see her flinch, but she just met his eyes, cool and calm, commanding. "Since you were a teenager."

"It was better that way."

"Yes, it was, but can't have been much fun for you."

"Well, I got over it, Carter, what else could I have done?"

"Jack… Jon," she corrected herself, "we're old friends, aren't we? Won't you call me Sam?"

 _Very_ different from the Major he'd known - but then there was something in it that he recognised as innately Carter, a spirit that made him feel really alive again.

"Sam," he said, "why are you here?"

"Because I know what you've been up to."

Jon sat up sharply. "The Air Force has been watching me?"

"Not the Air Force. Me."

"You?"

"And Daniel," she added quickly, "and Teal'c."

"And Jack?"

There she hesitated. "No," she said finally. "Not Jack."

"Me neither. Watching him, I mean. I kept an eye on the other two. And on you. By the way, General, congrats on the command."

He was rewarded with that shining smile, but it was older and wiser and a little sadder than the last time he'd seen it.

"Has something happened? They can't have gone back on it."

"No. The SGC's mine, and all the PR and diplomat-babysitting that comes along with it."

"You must be loving that."

"It's hell. But I wouldn't give up the command over it."

"Good. We need you there."

She smiled again. "We?"

"Us. You know—" he spread out his arms in an all-encompassing gesture— "humanity. You're the only one I trust to do the job right."

"That's exactly what Jack said." But her tone was thoughtful more than anything else.

"Sam. What do you want from me?"

"I want you to come and work for me."

For a second he was Colonel Jack O'Neill again, grudgingly answering the call from retirement to stand up and serve his country. And then he was looking Sam Carter in the face, Sam Carter who he'd loved, and worked with, and stopped himself from loving.

"I can't do that," he said quietly.

Her face fell and he wanted to take it all back, he'd been fifteen years apart from her and now he had her again he wouldn't let go - but her finger played on her ring for a second, and he set his jaw and looked away.

"I can't be around you all day and know you're going home to _him_ at the end of it."

"Oh… no, I know you can't do that, Jon, I wouldn't ask you to do that. It's my own old command. The _General Hammond_."

"The _Hammond_? I thought General Mitchell was taking that."

"No," she said quietly, "Cam won't be taking any more commands."

That must be why she'd looked so sad. It must be new, or it would have been all over the news. "I'm sorry," he offered weakly. "He was a friend of yours, wasn't he?"

"He was family," she answered shortly, and didn't look at him for a minute. Then she straightened. "It's all a PR nightmare, Jon. It's a peaceful mission, and they wanted to put a civilian in charge from the start. The media loved Cam, and once we announced his command nobody could make any changes without incurring the public's wrath. But now… Jon, you're the only one I trust to do the job right."

"You get to make the decision?"

"I'm on the board. So is Daniel. Nobody else on the planet knows who you really are except Jack."

"So you two have snuck me into the running?"

"It wasn't either of us who proposed you. You're incredibly qualified for this command, Jon, even without your experience from before. You've been staying away from the military, but you've got everything on paper that you need, and you're you."

"You mean, I'm Jack."

"No, I mean you're _you_ , Jon. You're not Jack. Jack couldn't and wouldn't head a peaceful mission like that, it's not his way. But you're young again, you're still younger now than you were when we first met. There's so much left for you to do, and it's only for a few months. Work for me, Jon."

It would be sweet to get into the sky again. To escape Earth's orbit, which hadn't really been home since Loki grew this body in a laboratory in the sky.

"I've got a life."

She laughed a little. "No, you don't."

"I've got a dog."

"I'll take care of your dog."

"You'll be taking care of the galaxy, and I won't have Jack take care of him. It's too creepy."

"Daniel will do it."

"His house is a museum."

"True enough. Cassandra will."

Jon had kept an eye on Cassie, too. She was close to his own age, really, but he still thought of her with the same paternal affection. She was a scientist of some kind - some sort of biology - and she lived in Denver with a writer wife and two small daughters. No pets.

Every kid _has_ to have a dog.

"Can I take him myself?"

Sam nodded, a smile in her eyes if not on her lips. "So you'll fly?"

"God, they knew what they were doing when they sent _you_ to ask me."

She laughed then. "Daniel said it was crazy, that I'd send you running for the hills."

"You nearly did."

"He wanted to come himself. Will you call him? I know he wants to talk to you."

"I'll call him."

"Good. Jon, it's been really good to see you, but I think maybe I should go."

He nodded numbly. Part of him could sit here for hours talking with her, but best not to open that door. She had the SGC and Jack to go home to. So he saw her out and locked the door behind her. Then he took his medicine, fingers trembling as he struggled with the cap, and finally he let Homer back in.

"Now I'm going home, too," he told the uncomprehending, excited old dog. The stars were where he was born, and now, thanks to Sam, he'd get to see them again before he died.

* * *

Basically I saw the photo of Amanda-as-Naomi that's been floating around and a sense of General Sam grew out of that, and before I knew it Cloneill was shooting a harsh word at her to see if she'd flinch. And then all of that happened.

Feedback is always appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

_This really was going to be a oneshot, but then I got some of the loveliest reviews I've ever had, and you all talked me into continuing it. Not sure where it's going yet, but there's a few ideas! Thanks for reading._

* * *

"He lent me a couch for a while once," Samantha said, tucked into Jack's side at a table in the corner of some DC bar across from where Vala sat comfortably between Daniel and Teal'c. "We were just a few years out of the Academy, we were stationed at the same base, I'd just moved out of my ex's place." She grinned suddenly. "He spent the whole summer trying to force feed me. One day I turned down waffles and woke up from an afternoon nap to a face full of whipped cream. He'd stuck a cherry in there, too, right in the middle of my forehead."

They all laughed, but Vala saw how Jack tightened his arm around his wife.

"I tried to go to Atlantis when Sam did, but _someone_ found out-" Daniel slung an arm across the back of Vala's chair and grinned at her- "and next thing I knew Mitchell was in my living room with a crate of beer. He had a hell of a way for turning a no into a yes, I don't even remember what he said to change my mind."

"He read every mission report on file when he was in hospital. Every other day I'd get a call, did you really do this, did you really do that, what do you mean Thor's a little grey Martian..."

"He haunted my office when we started hearing more and more about Camelot. I think he read almost as much as I did."

"He hid lemons in the suitcase I took to Atlantis."

"He knew he was going to die, and he stayed to finish the job."

Silence fell at Vala's quiet statement, and a hovering barman saw his cue. "Folks, we're closing up."

Vala saw an exchange of whispers between Sam and Jack as they gathered their things, and Jack clapped Teal'c and Daniel heartily on the backs. "Who's driving, boys?" With absolutely no subtlety at all, they left together, and Samantha slipped her arm through Vala's, leading her towards the parking lot.

"How are you doing with all this?" she asked when Daniel's car had disappeared onto the highway.

"As well as can be expected," Vala admitted.

"I thought you were extraordinary that day," Sam said. She ushered Vala into the passenger seat of Jack's truck and hopped behind the wheel.

"It didn't do much good."

"It did good for his mother. Vala, you brought him home."

"But too late." It was true she'd been unable to leave him there, eyes and mouth wide open, a hole the size of her fist in the middle of his chest. She'd hidden till the attackers were gone, and taken him by the arms, and dragged him home. It had been painful, and exhausting, and entirely undignified, and when Samantha had been there waiting to meet her on the other side of the gate-

"It wouldn't have helped anyone to get yourself killed, too."

"But I'll still have this in my head for the rest of my life. And he'll still be gone."

Sam hesitated, looking at Vala with eyes that saw too much. "This is the first time you've really lost someone, isn't it?"

Vala blinked at her and thought. Her mother had died in her infancy, her stepmothers had never been kind, she hadn't heard anything of her father in years, and her relationships before and after Qetesh had invariably ended in conflict. She hadn't truly loved a soul until she came to Stargate Command, and there she had loved four. Higher riches than all the gold in the galaxy. Adria's death had hurt, but the overpowering sense she was left with there was relief. But this – this was like losing a limb. She had only three others. Would she lose them all, one by one, and be left unable to reach or stand or crawl?

"How do you bear it?"

"You share the burden with your friends."

Vala hesitated. "Will you do something for me?"

"Yes."

"Will you help me get off this planet?"

For a moment Samantha looked like she was going to object – then she stopped.

"You know what, Vala – I think I might have just the thing."

* * *

His crew were a strange mix, but Jon felt the rush of awe that ran through them, military and civilian alike, when General Carter entered the room.

He had hoped she'd get on with things quickly, but of course she didn't, stopping to talk to a few crewmen she knew – he remembered the newly minted Major Hailey vaguely, Carter's old Air Force Academy protégé with a chip on her shoulder; Jennifer Keller, who Carter trusted, the only person on the crew to whom his identity had needed to be revealed; Colonel Marks, the military commander of the _General Hammond_.

It didn't escape Jon's notice when she drew the alien Vala Mal Doran aside. There was trouble.

After a few minutes Carter looked for him. Jon sighed and crossed the room to her, it was important no matter how uncomfortable either one of them might be. And maybe he did want to speak with her one last time.

"Jack wanted to come," she said as she shook his hand.

"Come on, Carter, no, he didn't."

"His fifteen years have been different to yours."

Didn't he know it. SG-1, the SGC, all his friends, and Carter too, a million things he'd never have.

"Not _that_ different."

Carter didn't deny it.

"Daniel and Teal'c?"

"They've been trying to talk Vala out of this since the minute she told them she was going. I didn't want them to make this harder for her."

"So you figured you'd just make it harder for me instead, huh?"

"I'm sorry about that, Jon. She needed space, and this way she's still with the family."

"I'm not-"

"Jon, no matter how weird this gets, no matter how many years you and Jack go without mentioning each other's names, no matter how different you are, you will _always_ be family."

He only knew so much of the fifteen years she'd had, too, but he did know she'd lost enough of family.

"Right." Jon shuffled awkwardly and glanced backwards at the lectern. "Let's get this show on the road."

She smiled and nodded, and they walked up together. A sergeant called the military forces to attention, and Jon spotted two or three civilians trying to mimic their crewmates.

"Crew of the _General Hammond_ , good luck," said the commanding officer of Stargate Command, "and Godspeed."


End file.
